brief / approach

The cover virtually designed itself, apart from my logo - a stylised 'M', wearing a pork pie hat.

Madness saved Stiff's bacon... relatively unknown, they were booked to play at Stiff  supremo Dave Robinson's wedding - they walked on to the stage exactly in the pose as they are on the album cover, before turning to the audience - they were signed to Stiff within a day or two. .!  And they were an absolute gift for marketing (they virtually did it themselves) and they made Stiff credible again...

Chrissie Boy wasn't very keen on meetings... when the band would come in to the Stiff office he would divert to the art department and spend a happy hour or so drawing - often close-ups of eyes - usually for a composition he didnt get time to finish when he was there...

backstory

Buster Bloodvessel was a huge Madness fan... He blagged his way into the Stiff art dept, announcing 'got any Madness stuff that's not for sale..?' - 'what would sir like?' was our first thought given he was the archetypal truly scary larger-than-life skinhead  (a punk's nightmare..!) who quickly turned out to be a really nice bloke...

Anyways, fast forward two years, and I was at a Clash gig in Camden - unbeknown to us all was there were a large number of skinheads outside looking to make trouble with the exiting punks...  Buster Bloodvessel - a gang leader - spots me coming out and yells  "he's alright, he's with me"... I got handsomely repaid for my art dept promo gifts..!